TAG Heuer smartwatch coming November but you can't afford it

By JC Torres/April 29, 2015 9:05 pm EST

Now that the Apple Watch has started arriving on the wrists of users, luxury watch makers are starting to take the smartwatch trend more seriously. But instead of being worried by the rise of these highly digital timepieces, some are seeing an opportunity. Take TAG Heuer's Jean-Claude Biver, for example. He sees the Apple Watch as a hip new trend that will get youngsters to start getting used to watches, which could eventually lead to more sales of traditional watches. That said, TAG Heuer's $1,400 smartwatch coming this November might be a bitter pill to swallow.

The luxury watch maker, part of the LVMH group, has been known to have mulled over entering into the smartwatch biz for some time now. That became a real thing last month when TAG Heuer announced its partnership with Google and Intel to make it into a reality. And now it seems that things are proceeding as planned, with a late 2015 launch date set.

Partnering with these Silicon Valley giants was a necessity for TAG Heuer. For one, it didn't have the expertise in creating these devices, and neither did the larger Swiss industry. At the same time, however, it required to have more than its fair share of the design and the manufacturing in order for the smartwatch to qualify for that coveted "Swiss-made" label.

Details on the TAG Heuer smartwatch are still slim at this point, but there is already talk of a battery life of 40 hours. That's already more than twice the Apple Watch's advertised 18 hours. Even Android Wear smartwatches don't usually fare as well so it will be interesting to see how TAG Heuer will manage to pull this off.

That said, despite the glowing battery life, the biggest hurdle to this smartwatch will of course be the $1,400 price tag. In comparison, the "normal" Apple Watch costs just bit over $1,000, though the gold edition is definitely worth ten times more. Of course, this is TAG Heuer we're talking about, so such prices, though seemingly absurd, are normal.

SOURCE: Bloomberg